An Asian member of the UK Independence Party has quit Nigel Farage’s organisation alleging that he has encountered racism within the party. Breitbart London understands that over the past month Ismail Patel has been engaged in online ‘flame wars’ with other party members, specifically regarding the Israeli operation in Gaza.
Patel, who has now joined anti-Israel MP George Galloway’s ‘Respect’ Party, announced he was leaving UKIP over a week ago, citing racial hatred. But critics have suggested that Patel’s pro-Hamas propaganda on his social media profiles was really the cause of certain arguments which led to “nasty” but untraceable abuse over Facebook. In other words, it was unclear who was sending Patel messages, or if they were indeed a UKIP member.
Pictures of Patel on stage with Farage at UKIP’s multi-racial event in London this year may cause some embarrassment for the party and its leader, especially as the mainstream media is often quick to jump on stories such as this, spinning against the eurosceptic party.
But a look into Patel’s online activities reveals a worrying side to the man’s politics, most notably his penchant for irrational, anti-Israel activism and the toeing of the Hamas line.
Links to pro-Gaza protests and marches are strewn over Patel’s pages. Earlier this month he had claimed that an ‘internal investigation’ was underway regarding comments made to him. When Breitbart London checked with UKIP, it transpired that no such investigation had been launched, though there were subsequently efforts to ascertain the source of Patel’s complaints.
Patel’s ‘likes’ on Facebook include the anti-Israel PressTV, which is funded and run by the Iranian state. He also ‘likes’ the Palestine Solidarity Campaign – an organisation that stands accused of wanted to abolish the State of Israel entirely due to its use of the outline of the country with the Palestinian flag draped over it as its logo.
Bizarrely, Patel is also a Facebook fan of ‘UK Nightlife Exposed’ which features lewd pictures of women, and has shared Facebook posts with illustrations of different positions of sexual intercourse. This alongside ‘liking’ organisations like the Ummah Welfare Trust (UWT), a charity whose bank accounts were recently closed by HSBC bank. UWT had previously donated money to Interpal, an organisation that was designated as a Hamas supporting organisation by U.S. authorities in 2003.
Patel likes ‘Lee Jasper’ – a black community activist who has claimed that black people cannot be racist, and has shared pro-Hamas links from the Middle East Monitor website which has itself been linked to the Muslim Brotherhood network.
George Galloway, who leads the Respect Party that Patel is now a member of, has repeatedly been accused of anti-Semitism, as have his party members and supporters. Last week Galloway urged a full boycott of Israel in Bradford, noting at a speech that the 95 percent of Jewish Israelis who backed Israel’s action against Hamas were not welcome in his constituency. A petition to have Galloway prosecuted under Section 5 of Britain’s Public Order Act has now reached 17,000 signatures.
UKIP told the Leicester Mercury newspaper that “it was unable to substantiate Mr Patel’s complaint with the evidence he initially provided – two screen shots – and had asked him for further information that would prove a UKIP member was responsible.”
UKIP’s Head of Press Gawain Towler said: “[the abuse in the screenshots] was really nasty. I was gobsmacked when I saw it. If that person was a UKIP member I would want him thrown out of the party but with what Ismail originally sent us it was not clear who was responsible. I offered to go to Market Harborough and meet Ismail so he could open up his Facebook page to us. We were working hard on this and needed Ismail’s co-operation but he left before any of that could happen.”
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